Black
by Aeli Kindara
Summary: A portrait of the Black cousins (Andromeda, Narcissa, Bellatrix, Sirius, and Regulus), focusing in particular on Andromeda and Sirius. Their life before Hogwarts, the divisions among them, and their fates as of Book 5.
1. A House

**A/N: **This is going to be the first story that's longer than 1000 words I post on and I hope it will go over well. It's a set of five shorts — longer than drabbles, but none exceeding 1000 words, and none less than 400 (this is without author's notes). I'm hoping to get feedback, but I'll probably post the next chapter even if I don't get reviews. Enough jabbering, though — I can go on forever like this if you let me. Here's the first chapter.

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If haunted houses ever existed, theirs was one.

There were ghosts, yes. Here and there, drifting through rooms, pearly shadows that never spoke. But the house was big enough that you didn't meet ghosts very often, and when you did, they simply passed through you without a word, and you shivered and kept walking. Ghosts were cold, like the rain, and the windows, and the sheets on the beds. Like the house.

When the rest of London basked in the warm rain and fresh breezes of spring, the water fell icy from the eaves of their house, and battered the flowers. The children pressed their faces to the cold glass of the windows that were grimy in the corners, and watched the rain flatten the peonies and the camellias and the white roses. The narcissi were sheltered, though, protected from the weather, and Narcissa gave a smug smile as she looked down at her namesake, safe and dry beneath the eaves. Her mother's favorite flower.

There were nine of them, in that house, and there was plenty of room to spare. It was big, big enough for two families. Procyon and Aldebaran, the twin sons of Orion and Capella Black, had chosen to share the ancient house when their parents were gone. Each now had a wife and children, but the house had more than enough space for them all. They didn't use much of the house — it had a presence of its own, far greater than anything they could comprehend, and they did not intrude too far into its world. The families were compressed, using far less space than they could. Aldebaran's three girls shared a room, where they could all move to Andromeda's bed in the night, curled up together for the warmth the sheets did not give. Bellatrix, Narcissa, Andromeda — the Black girls. Regulus and Sirius — the Black boys. Five small children in a big, cold house.

There was magic in the house — powerful, Dark magic that hid and concealed and protected it. Procyon made sure of that, after a Muggle salesman strayed in their door. The house came away with dozens of protective spells. The Muggle wasn't quite as lucky.

But there was other magic in the house, as well, magic that none of them understood, magic that stretched back ages. Magic that made the house what it was. There was magic in the wood of the dark, sweeping staircases, and magic in the silver chandeliers that glimmered above. There was magic in the darkness that pressed around each solitary candle flame, magic that never allowed light to penetrate far into the gloom of the house. It was a dark place, a Black place, where silver serpents twisted through every aspect of the residents' tainted lives.

Everything about the house was tainted. The silver was tarnished, the carpets were dusty, and grime always accumulated in the corners of the windows. There were house-elves, of course, all with the same snout-like nose, but the house was big and they were busy, scuttling up and down their secret passageways, cleaning clothes, preparing meals, lighting fires that gave what warmth they could before the house drew it away. The house-elves had no time to take care of the windows and the carpets and the silver chandeliers, except for the occasional dusting, and much of the house was left untouched and unexplored.

The children liked to wander, to investigate the miscellaneous artifacts of untold age scattered through the house. They knew to look and not to touch — one never could tell what would be inside this tarnished silver snuffbox, or that heavy gold locket. The children had the sense not to open a bottle of blood or play with a rusty old dagger, but they loved to look through the mysterious items that could be found everywhere in the house. Mystery was abundant, from the drawing room to the kitchen to the attic, and the children went everywhere they could find, but they knew that they could never explore the entire house, and accepted it. The house wasn't a place you could know, or map. The house was its own world — a bridge between planes, almost, a bridge from London into somewhere much darker — existing in both and yet in neither. The house was a place of seeping darkness and whispers in the night, of creaking floorboards and ceilings that recede into the gloom. The house was haunted — haunted by age and dirt and pain and darkness and magic and fear and blood and even ghosts. But most of all, the house was Black.

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**A/N:** There it is. I hope you liked it; if you didn't, I'm sorry. Either way, please review! I appreciate honesty. I admit that I got much of the inspiration for this chapter in particular, and this story as a whole, from Abigail-Nicole's work, in particular her one-shot "Black." I took a few ideas, but I tried to make this as original as possible. Read her work. She's my inspiration. (You can go to my favorites to find her — I think she's on favorite authors, and one of her stories is on favorite stories.) Her writing is incredible — if you like this, you'll fall in love with her stuff.

Those of you who I'm on the Author Alert or Favorites list of, I love you, and I really hope the idea of this interested you enough to read it, and please review. I know you're out there!


	2. A Family

**Disclaimer:** Forgot this for the last chapter. I don't own the world of Harry Potter. This is only for my entertainment and others', hopefully. Enjoy.

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"Father told me the Ministry's about to pass the bill that lets wizards use real curses against Muggles who trespass," Narcissa said self-importantly, settling into her seat. Of course _she_ would be the one her father would entrust with such important information.

"But that's not nice!" Sirius exclaimed. Sirius, so young, so innocent, only just graduated to the company of his older cousins — gray eyes wide and somehow deeper than those of most four-year-olds.

Cissa rolled her own eyes slightly, giving a small huff of lofty disdain. Cissa — nine years old, but already so haughty, so superior. More than any of the others, she had absorbed the ideal of the royalty of the Blacks, and taken it to heart. Cissa — already the cold, disdainful lady she would remain all her life.

Bella merely raised a scornful eyebrow. Even at seven, she already took savage pride in all she did. She had none of Cissa's reserve, none of her ladylike demeanor. Bella was a fighter, with a cruel smile and a penetrating glare.

Andie laughed. Andie always laughed, not contemptuously as Bella would, but merrily, lightheartedly. Andie, glorious eleven-year-old, about to enter Hogwarts — the first of the Black cousins to ascend to the fabled ranks of the Hogwarts students. Slytherin, of course — a given. None of the cousins knew of the late-night discussions where her parents expounded in heated whispers on her flaws and failings. Andie did not take proper pride in her family, they said. She was too carefree. Too happy. Andie — a misfit if there ever was one. Andie, who laughed.

"It's not supposed to be nice, Sirius," she explained kindly. Andie was always kind. "It's supposed to keep Muggles from trespassing."

"But stunning them would work, too!" All Black children were well-versed in spells both common and unusual, and Sirius was no exception.

"Stunning," Cissa cut in haughtily, "does nothing to teach those de — degenerate mongrels a lesson. We need to teach them not to trespass on our land." She smiled slightly, proud of her use of big words.

"Permanently, if possible," Bella added, with silky malice. No one would think she was so young — she was tainted in a way only the corrupted adults should be. They all were. Blacks were superior, and superiority came with maturity — so the Black children were mature, in their own Black way. Even Sirius, that naive little boy, had a deeper understanding of the evils of the world than any four-year-old should. Even happy-go-lucky Andie had shadows in her heart.

Love was a strange thing for the Blacks. It was not warm, or tender. Rarely displayed, it nevertheless existed, in its own way. It was a subconscious bond between them all, a unity that only became evident in the presence of an outsider. Love was a cold hand gripping another like it. Cissa and Andie and Bella and Sirius and Regulus all loved each other, and they loved their parents, but they never showed it, nor did they want to. Only Andie ever acted like she loved, and even she displayed true affection rarely. Her kindness and smiles and laughter were not love. They were Andie, just as haughty sweeps of the head and expressions of dainty disgust were Cissa, and malevolent sneers and cruel words were Bella. Just as wide-eyed questions were Sirius and plaintive wails were Regulus. Love was on a deeper level than any of that, intangible and elusive and cold. The Blacks were a cold family, even with Andie, and their love was like them. Dark and mysterious and cold.

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**A/N:** To my wonderful reviewers, ElvenYoukai and AlyceJL — thank you so much for your praise! (I had an awful day today — I completely bombed the Chem test, I think, and I'm getting sick for the third time since Christmas — and then I got home and there in the email: four reviews! I can't say how much you cheered me up.) Alyce, as soon as I find time (which may very well be within the next few hours), I'm going to read your fic. And Elven (is that what you like to be called? your profile doesn't say anything…), do you write? You should really post something if you do. I'm going to keep an eye out. Also, thank you so much for your continued support. You're definitely my most consistent reviewer, and I haven't expressed my appreciation yet, but I really love having you there. Thanks so much.


	3. A Different House

**Disclaimer:** J. K. Rowling owns the world of Harry Potter. I don't. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out, now, does it?

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Things changed, that September. The unity that could be called love was struck a harsh blow, and it never truly recovered.

September second — a letter from Andie, as she had promised. Narcissa, feeling important, read it aloud to the others. "Hello to my family. It is the morning of my first day at Hogwarts and, like I promised, I'm writing to you. I have some news and I hope it will not startle you too badly." Cissa's eyes went wide, lofty expression dropping from her face to be replaced by a slack-jawed picture of disbelief. After a moment, the letter fluttered to the tabletop from her hands.

Bella, impatient, snatched it up. Unlike Cissa's, her eyes narrowed as she found the offending line. "Andie's not a Slytherin," she hissed. "She's a Ravenclaw."

This proclamation was followed by a silence. After a seemingly infinite pause, Sirius piped up. "What's wrong with Ravenclaw?"

Andie was always the one to answer Sirius's endless stream of questions, and it took her sisters a moment to remember that she wasn'there this time. Cissa, shaking free of her shock, answered, "Well, Sirius, it's just that our family is always in Slytherin. Slytherin has higher standards than the rest of the houses — it doesn't admit mudblood riffraff. It's the only house where you can really feel sure that you're in refined company. I suppose that if she couldn't be in Slytherin, Ravenclaw's not that bad — I mean — they are supposed to be intelligent, aren't they?" She looked hopefully at her younger sister.

Bella was looking unusually upset. "I guess," she said grudgingly. "But — Andie's supposed to be in Slytherin! How could things go wrong like that?"

Cissa was scanning the letter again. "She says she thinks Ravenclaw is a good house for her and she likes the people there. There's one mudblood in her dorm but she doesn't seem too vulgar. And she wants us to please not make a big fuss over it."

"How can we not make a big fuss?" Bella exploded. "She's our _sister!_ She's betrayed the family! And she wants us to just be all right with that?"

Cissa watched helplessly as Bella burst into tears. Andie had always been the one who comforted people and made everything work smoothly. How could she take her older sister's place?

To make matters worse, a noisy sob suddenly broke out from Regulus. "Why di' Andie hafta go away?" he wailed, face reddening. Cissa stared helplessly at her sobbing sister and cousin, while Sirius watched quietly from the corner, a slightly puzzled expression on his face. The facade was falling apart — the Blacks were showing emotion. The way things used to be had suddenly become meaningless, and this loss of direction had the Black children thrown into the confusion, with nowhere to turn.

The world had suddenly become a two-way street.

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**A/N:** I'm sorry for the delay in updating; I was suspended for a week — see "Studying (Revised)" (I should have it up soon) if you want the details. Please review; it makes me very happy. Oh, some responses to reviewers (I love doing these!): I've already responded to Emily (aka Fortecat aka You'llKnowIfYouReadIt) through email. To Elven — so long as you mean it, I don't mind repetitive comments! And you will be seeing more soon… As I'm typing this, I'm looking up at my computer clock and saying "Three more hours until suspension is over… three more hours…" And in three hours, I will be posting not only this, but three other stories! That's what you get for suspending me for a week in which I stay home sick for a day. And to flamepheonix — Thank you so much for your praise! A word of explanation about my reviews of your story — I've been a very confused person and keeping getting my author alerts mixed up and thinking you've posted more chapters than you have. It makes me sad when I discover that there are fewer new chapters than I'd thought. Please write more soon! Oh, and to Sara-who-reviewed "Dying Together, Dying Alone" — You said "loving all your stories" (which made me feel very very happy), so I'm hoping that you're reading this infernally long author's note. Thank you so much for reviewing, and I hope you do it again, because it makes me happy. I'm going to go check out Robin. (That's my English teacher's name. What a coincidence.)

Anyway, sorry for the long A/N, and please review!


	4. New Families

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the world of Harry Potter. This means I can't give it to you, so there's no use in asking. It also means that this mildly entertaining little story is not meant to infringe on any copyrights, etc, etc. Thank you.

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"Andie?"

"Yes, Sirius?"

"Is it true you're dating a Mudblood?"

The Head Girl wheeled, catching Sirius by surprise. "Ted Tonks is not a _Mudblood,_ Sirius." She spat the word as if to rid her mouth of its taste.

"Oh, he isn't? I was a little —"

"Sirius. Sit down."

He looked startled. "Why?"

"We need to talk."

With a shrug, he sat. "About what?"

"You were sorted into Gryffindor, Sirius."

"I thought you at least wouldn't be mad at me."

"If you really are going to be a Gryffindor, you need to realize that there's no such thing as a _Mudblood._ Some witches and wizards have Muggle parents. This doesn't make them any less than the rest of us. Ted Tonks is a wonderful person. The muggle-born girl in my dorm is, too. They're just as good as the rest of us. You have to realize that, Sirius, or you won't get anywhere. You have to get past the prejudices that you've been taught by our family. _You have to._ It won't work out otherwise. Understand?"

"But —"

"Understand?"

He swallowed. "I think so."

"I hope so," she replied. "You do realize how the family's going to react, right? They were bad enough when I was sorted into Ravenclaw, and that's nowhere _near_ as bad in their eyes as Gryffindor. I mean, Slytherin and Gryffindor are mortal enemies. Bella will be livid — your mother, too. And the rest won't be much better. You're on your own now — I mean, you've got me, of course, but I'm going to be gone in a year. I'm not coming back home. If Gryffindor doesn't become your new home, you won't have one — not really. You have to make this work, Sirius. Your life will be hell if you don't."

Sirius gulped. "I'll — I'll do my best."

Andie nodded. "I know you will. Just remember, whatever you do — keep an open mind. That's the most important thing of all."

-

"How are you doing, Sirius?"

"Andie! I haven't seen you in two years!"

"I've missed you."

"It's so great to see you! How are you and Ted doing?"

Andie blushed. "Actually — I wanted to ask you — how'd you like to be part of the wedding?"

Sirius's eyes grew large, and Andie smiled at the familiar look. "You're getting married?"

"That's the general idea," she replied, laughing. "You can get the details later. How are things with you? Are you still friends with that group of boys you met in your first year?"

"Yep! Closer than ever. I've been staying with James over the holidays, actually. Haven't been home since first year!"

An almost wistful look crossed Andie's face. "Sirius — don't you ever wish that it could have been all right with them? That they could have accepted us? That we could have stayed family?"

Sirius looked down, scuffing his shoe in the dirt. "I guess — sometimes — a little. But the guys are more family to me than Bellatrix and Narcissa and Regulus ever were. We're practically brothers — and they're better brothers than Regulus was. That's for certain."

"So you don't even consider them family anymore?"

"Do they consider me family?"

"I think — yes, in a way. I think they still want you to be a Black again."

Sirius scowled. "But I don't _want_ to be a Black. My name has two parts. I like the first part better. I want to be _Sirius."_

"You don't even want to reconcile with them?" She was almost pleading.

"I'm not going to bend, Andie. If I'm going to reconcile with them, they're the ones who have to come around to my point of view."

Andie sighed. "And of course, you're both taking that approach, and therefore will get nowhere."

"So be it, then. I don't need them, Andie! I have the guys. They're my _real_ family. You're the one who told me to keep an open mind and make my house into my family!"

"Yes," she whispered. "I suppose I am."

-

"You ran away from home, Sirius."

"Really? I never would have noticed. Oh, look, she just changed her nose!"

"Why?"

"Because she's a metamorphmagus. You're her mother, for crying out loud. You should know that! Also, why on earth did you name her Nymphadora?"

Andie ignored the last comment. "No, why did you run away from home?"

"Because I hated it there."

"I know — but Sirius, you know that there'll never be hope for you being family with them again."

"I don't care."

"God, Sirius! Why are you so hardened against them? They're your _family!_ Isn't blood thicker than water?"

"That blood's been shed," he replied bitterly. "Did you know Bella's a Death Eater?"

Andie's breath caught in her throat at the joint use of an old nickname and calm accusation. "She is?"

"Hell yeah. Made a right point of it."

"You can't honestly tell me you don't care."

He turned to face her. "You know what, Andie? I don't. All I care about is that there's one more Death Eater out there who's killing innocent people and shouldn't be. I don't care that it's Bella. As far as I'm concerned, she's just another random person following that idiotic Voldemort's orders. She's not my family anymore. She's no one to me. None of them are anyone to me. I've severed all ties with them."

"You really hate them, don't you, Sirius?"

"I hate everyone who's a Death Eater. I hate everyone who supports Death Eaters. I don't hate them any more than the rest."

Andie shook her head. "Then all I can say, Sirius, is that you've got an awful lot of hate."

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**A/N:** Thank you for reading; please review. I'm sorry for taking so long to get this up — to be honest, I was being lazy. Sorry. Thanks to Hanna, ElvenYoukai, and Shinigami for reviewing. In answer to Shinigami's question, in my version of the Blacks' story: Andromeda was born in 1954 and attended Hogwarts from 1965 to 1972. Narcissa was born in 1956 and attended Hogwarts from 1967 to 1972. Bellatrix was born in 1958 and attended Hogwarts from 1969 to 1977. In Chapter 1, I made a mistake on Sirius; he's actually five then, born in 1960 and attending Hogwarts from 1971 to 1978. And Regulus, according to my notes at least, was born in 1961 and attended Hogwarts from 1972 to 1979. I think some of this doesn't fit quite right for this story — it was worked out for a different story — so just pretend where you see fit. :D And please review, anyone who's reading this.


	5. The End of a Beginning

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the world of Harry Potter. Surprise, surprise.

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Sirius is dead, now. Bella killed him. And then his godson tried to kill her. So much hate. So much anger. I can't help but wonder — if Sirius could just have kept on speaking terms with the family, would any of this had happened?

Regulus is dead, too — he died way back, even before Voldemort vanished. From what I hear, he joined the Death Eaters but tried to back out, and was killed.

And Bella — well, she's gone further than I ever thought she would. She's become the very essence of darkness. I think Azkaban did something to her — her personality hasn't changed, not really, just been magnified, and twisted. She's insane now, I swear it. She scares me. It scares me that that's my sister. That my sister has turned into that.

Cissa's got a son, sixteen years old now. She's married to Lucius Malfoy, but he's in Azkaban. I think Cissa's angry. I think she might do something drastic. I don't know if she's a Death Eater, but even if she isn't, she's involved in what they do. She used to be halfway between me and Bella. Now — well, I haven't talked to her or anything, but I think she's strayed more toward Bella. And her husband is right in Voldemort's inner circle. She's gotten the high-and-mighty position she always wanted.

Ted and I live our lives. We're normal. I wanted this so much — normality. Looks like I was the only one of us to achieve it. Maybe I was the only one who wanted it. Nymphadora doesn't want normality — she turns her hair pink, for crying out loud. Not to mention that she's an Auror. She inherited Ted's clumsiness, which I've always found endearing. Apparently, others find it annoying.

I don't see much of Nymphadora these days. She tells me she's busy. I should think so, seeing as she's an Auror and Voldemort just returned. But I also think she's involved in another group, something Sirius was involved in, too, something that's been going on ever since Voldemort actually returned. She tried to tell me about it, once, but I didn't want to hear it. Normality is worth too much to me. I have to wonder, though, was it right of me to shut all that out? Could I have helped? What if I'd been there — would Sirius have lived? Would he have been proven innocent, like I always knew he was? There's no way of knowing what would have happened, though, so I'll live with it. I'll deal.

And I'll wait for tomorrow.

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**A/N:** Well, there you have it. I didn't really do it intentionally, but I think Andie's love for normality is fitting. Folding socks? Also — I will respond to all reviews to this chapter, and previous chapters if they're reviewed after I post this chapter, on my LiveJournal, which is linked to as my "homepage" on my profile. So please review, because then you'll get a whole little paragraph on my LiveJournal dedicated to you. And if you say something interesting, it might even be a long paragraph. Now you have a very good reason to review, no?


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